Warm sunlight poured from the skies towards the world below.

A gentle breeze traveled through fields upon fields of grass and flowers unimpeded.

Azure, and only a few splotches of white, painted the near infinite canvas formed by the heavens above.

It's summer in Tokyo, even as the bustling metropolis makes it seem much like a considerably warmer spring.

All in all, it was quite the beautiful day: birds sing, gusts of wind battle the warmth, and a comfortable atmosphere welcomed any and all people who lived in the city whose daily commute had only just started.

"Mnn... Hm...?"

A certain brunette kunoichi, who stirred in her bed as an incoming breeze tickled her features and blew the white, translucent curtains.

"Hmm..."

Lightly stretching her limbs, being selfishly careful not to erase her drowsiness during the act, Asuka slowly cracked open unfocused hazel eyes, pointing at the open window on the other side of her bedroom. Beyond it is the same sight as always: a blue sky, clouds, and nothing else.

In her drowsy, sleepy state, Asuka didn't fully notice that the view outside was lacking in the usual buildings and streets and streets that were normally present outside of her window. Instead, one would have noticed that the view was more snowy and mountainous than usual.

But Asuka didn't notice that little detail. Instead, she moved to slowly escape her covers, bringing her feet to the ground. She stretched her arms over her head, her massive mounds bouncing as she grunted and loosened her creaky bones, before she finally pushed herself off the bed entirely and landed her feet on the floor—

"... Hm?"

Asuka paused.

Was it just her or did her bed feel a lot lower than usual?

In her groggy, half-asleep state, Asuka only pondered on that feeling for a moment before she ultimately shrugged and fully stood up with a yawn. If she had paid better attention, the young kunoichi student certainly would have notice that her room was far more akin to a traditional Japanese bedroom from the Edo Period than a modern one, with tatami mats and shoji doors and a lack of any technology.

She probably would have also noticed that her body felt more… chilly than normal. Not only that, but in place of her usual pajamas was a simple white kimono.

However, Asuka was still in such a state that her brain didn't properly register all of these oddities. Instead, the student kunoichi simply shuffled her way into the personal bathroom in her room.

Her solution to waking herself up was to always wash her face first. She flipped the light on, turning on the sink to let some cold water run and feeling it with her fingers before leaning down and splashing her face with cold water.

No, she didn't notice that her skin was paler than usual. All she registered in that moment was the sweet sensation of ice cold water against her face. The drowsiness and grogginess of early morning started to leave Asuka, and she slicked back her hair to get a good look at herself in the mirror—

"?!"

Her blood ran cold. In just a moment, it was as if the whole world had stopped making sense.

Asuka stared at the girl in the mirror. She was tall, with pale skin, light blue eyes and dark silver hair that just reached down to her shoulders. She was stunningly beautiful, and she wore a plain white kimono that was slightly drooping off of her shoulders.

Asuka recognized the girl immediately, of course. It was Yumi, no doubt about that. She was about to question why the girl was in her own room, not that she minded her company at all, but Asuka noticed one simple thing.

Yumi was mimicking her movements perfectly. They blinked at the same time, moved in unison, and they both shared the same stunned, shocked expression. No matter what Asuka did, Yumi was copying her movements perfectly down to the letter.

So there were two possibilities in Asuka's mind. Either Yumi was playing a very elaborate prank on her, which didn't seem to be in the girl's nature at all, or she simply was Yumi.

It also dawned on her that this wasn't her bedroom at all. In fact, this likely wasn't even her own house, or the city she had grown up in.

"…"

In that particular moment, Asuka did the only thing her mind deemed rational.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

As it turned out, having a panic attack in the bathroom hadn't been the brightest of ideas.

As soon as 'Yumi' had screamed as loud as she did, Yozakura had practically broken down the door to Yumi's room in less than ten seconds. From Yozakura's point of view, it had sounded like Yumi had gotten attacked or much worse so it was only natural for her to rush in and see if her leader was safe.

When she came in, Yozakura had been greeted by 'Yumi' on the floor and the entire bathroom covered in a thick sheet of ice and snow, as a result of Asuka essentially knee-jerking and blasting everything around her since she wasn't at all familiar with Yumi's powers.

From that point on, Yozakura had made it her mission to not let 'Yumi' out of her sight for even a moment, so Asuka was left to sit on the bed while Yozakura had filled the bathroom with every spare heater in the house to thaw it out.

She'd really have to apologize to Yumi later… wherever she was at the moment.

"Alright, that's gonna have to do it for now…" Yozakura sighed as she closed the door to Yumi's bathroom, and Asuka could practically see the sheer red heat emanating from the heaters strewn about inside, before the blue-haired Elite obstructed her view entirely by sitting right in front of her. "So then, you mind telling me what the fuck that was?"

Asuka flinched at Yozakura's curt question, completely unprepared for that so soon. She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts and just barely processing her own situation that she didn't even come up with an excuse for flipping out and freezing the bathroom.

And now Yozakura was staring straight at her waiting for an answer from 'Yumi', and every second spent in silence just made the girl look more and more intense.

She had to think of an answer, fast.

"I-It was nothing—"

"Don't bullshit me." Yozakura sternly rebuked her, and Asuka nearly squeaked. "You don't just scream at the top of your lungs and freeze your own bathroom out of 'nothing', Yumi. That's an excuse Minori would make."

Asuka felt herself shrink under Yozakura's gaze and her strict tone. She felt like a kid all over again, being lectured by her mother for beating up a group of kids at the playground. Of course, she had heard and even seen on some occasions Yozakura's stern and motherly attitude towards her teammates, but being subjected to it first hand was another thing entirely.

She had to salvage this situation somehow. There's no way Yozakura would just believe her if she said she was Asuka, the girl was more likely to think she was just outright crazy, so she had to think of a convincing enough excuse.

"I… I was… erm… I…" Asuka stumbled over her words, and Yozakura raised an eyebrow at her. "I-I… I just don't… feel very well… I-I had tried to go clean myself off in the bathroom, and… Um…"

Yozakura seemed to stare right into her soul, and Asuka couldn't help but panic a little underneath such an intense gaze. Her words trailed off and she looked straight down at the floor, wondering if her cover had been blown already.

"... I get it. You're sick." She heard Yozakura say, sounding a little relieved at something that simple, and she felt the girl's hand press up against her head. "Geez, you do feel really warm. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you did overtrain like a dumbass last night."

"Y-Yes…" Asuka just decided to nod along, since it was way easier than attempting to make up even more bad excuses. She looked back up at Yozakura, who was just shaking her head as she stood up.

"Alright, here's how this is gonna go." Yozakura started, pointing directly at 'Yumi's' face with a stern look. "You're taking it easy for today. No training. No going outside. No leaving the room period. If you even attempt to break one of these rules, you will not hear the end of it. Understood?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am…" Asuka squeaked, unwilling to defy the girl in any capacity.

"Good." Yozakura nodded. "Since it's just us today, I'll be taking care of you. I will hear no objections to this, Yumi. I don't care how much you whine about it."

"Just us? W-Where are the other three…?"

At that question, Yozakura looked genuinely concerned for her, and Asuka realized she should have just kept her mouth shut. "God, how out of it are you, Yumi? Shiki and Minori are spending the day in Shibuya, and Murakumo's stuck with her family for the week. You knew that already."

"... Y-Yes, I guess I did…" Asuka muttered, feeling embarrassed at being called out.

Yozakura sighed. "Assuming you can sit in your room and not have another freakout for ten minutes, I'll go and make you some okayu, alright? Don't leave your bed, and for the love of God, don't get into the bathroom again."

Asuka blushed. "I-I won't. I'll stay right here." To demonstrate her point, 'Yumi' sat straight on her bed in a perfectly polite manner, smiling right at Yozakura and not moving a single inch.

"... Okay. Good." Yozakura seemed slightly bewildered by her display, but at the end of it she simply shook her head and closed the door behind her. Asuka listened intently to Yozakura's footsteps, waiting until she couldn't hear them anymore before she decided to move and look for a phone.

Asuka knew that Yumi had gotten a smartphone fairly recently, and she definitely knew that they had exchanged phone numbers and kept in contact with each other basically every day. With that thought in mind, Yumi had to have left her phone somewhere close.

It wasn't far. It rested neatly on the nightstand next to Yumi's bed, and Asuka quickly took it and scrolled through the phone's contacts. She found her own number in there, and she hurriedly typed out a message to Yumi, or 'Asuka' in this case, and she patiently waited for a response back from her.

After what felt like an eternity, Yumi's phone buzzed. Asuka quickly looked and was more than relieved to see that Yumi was okay, albeit just as confused about their situation as Asuka was.

In short, they were stuck in each other's bodies. While overall neither of them knew how it really happened, Asuka did vaguely remember experimenting with a new Ninja Art the previous night. She didn't remember the specifics, but it was something along the lines of 'freeing the body and soul' before she had tested it.

Apparently, the scroll meant that very literally.

Asuka, of course, had been completely apologetic about the whole thing, which Yumi took in graciousness and stride. With that said, neither of them really knew how to get back into their own bodies just yet, but Yumi was intent on finding a solution while trying not to get her cover blown.

Yumi also had to fill in for Asuka at school, and Asuka could only imagine how that was playing out for the girl. Their conversation had ended abruptly since Yumi was arriving at Hanzo Academy, but she promised to keep Asuka updated if she found anything to solve their situation.

Before they parted ways, Asuka quickly apologized for destroying her bathroom, and Yumi had only left her a single question mark before Asuka turned the phone off out of embarrassment.

In short, Asuka was stuck in Yumi's body until further notice, and vice versa.

With a sigh, Asuka fell straight on her back and looked right up at the ceiling. The wind continued to blow in through the window, gently hitting 'Yumi' in the face as she sat alone with her thoughts.

Somehow, Asuka had somewhat managed to come to terms with the fact that she was in her friend's body. She raised her hand up over her face, none of it even belonging to Asuka to begin with. The hand was completely foreign to her, and she used it to feel her face, which was also foreign.

… Asuka never really noticed how smooth and silky Yumi's skin actually was. She honestly felt jealous, and the Hanzo student wondered what her care routine even was to get it this perfect.

'Wait, why am I even thinking like that? Stop being weird, Asuka?'

Shaking her head, Asuka looked around Yumi's bedroom. She realized she had never actually been to Yumi's home, much less her room, so being here felt like some kind of breach of privacy. Even still, Asuka couldn't help but look around her room.

She saw decorative fans lined up along the walls, some looking hundreds of years old, and were pristinely cleaned in spite of that. Yumi had told her once about how she kept her Grandfather's fans close to herself, and now Asuka could see what she meant by that.

Yumi's bedroom was a lot more bare than Asuka would have thought. She knew that the girl liked to live minimally, but her own bedroom only seemed to have the bare essentials and only a few mementos dedicated to her Grandfather.

Asuka wondered how Yumi passed the time like this, but considering how she preferred to live more traditionally, she didn't doubt the girl did a lot of fancy old-fashioned stuff in her free time. Or, as Yozakura told her earlier, she simply trained.

"Wow, you actually listened to me. I'm impressed."

'Yumi' looked down, seeing Yozakura come into the room with a bowl of hot soup. It smelled delicious even from her position, and Asuka felt her stomach growl just looking at it.

"Is it really that surprising?" 'Yumi' asked her, sitting up to meet her with an easy smile as Yozakura came to her bed.

"Well, usually when you get like this you really like to think you know better than everyone else." Yozakura told her curtly, and Asuka flinched yet again from the biting feeling of her words. "I was half expecting to catch you climbing out of the window. So yeah, it's a little surprising."

"... I'm sorry?" 'Yumi' awkwardly apologized, and Yozakura simply laughed as she set down the table on her lap.

"At least you're actually listening for once. Now eat up." Yozakura told her, as she gestured to the okayu. "It's easy for your stomach, so you won't have any problems keeping it down."

Asuka looked down at the bowl, almost drooling from the delicious smell alone. It was a rice porridge, with greens and two eggs nested neatly inside of it. Asuka took the wooden spoon and scooped as much as she could and put it in her mouth.

"!"

It tasted like pure Heaven in her mouth. The texture, the flavor, the heat… It was all so perfect that it nearly brought Asuka to tears. She had always heard that Yozakura was a good cook, but she never really fully understood that until the moment it actually entered her mouth.

She took another bite. And another. More and more to fill her mouth until her bowl was completely emptied in minutes. The okayu was simply too delicious for her to stop for a single moment. When she was done, Asuka set the spoon down and felt truly content.

… Then she looked up at Yozakura, and noticed that the girl was giving 'Yumi' a downright befuddled look.

"... Hey, did you eat at all yesterday? I've never seen you pig out like that before." Yozakura pointedly asked her, and 'Yumi' looked away with a blush.

"I-I may have… neglected that little detail…" Asuka lied, inadvertently making Yumi look a little worse to avoid blowing her cover.

"Woman, you're a mess and a half." Yozakura sighed, then took the empty bowl from her. "Honestly, you've been acting so out of it today that I'm starting to wonder if you're really even Yumi."

To that, Asuka froze completely. Her panic set in and she rushed to keep up appearances. "W-What do you mean? Of course I'm Yumi. I-I'm just feeling a little under the weather, that's all…"

"... Right." Yozakura said after she stared at her for a long moment. After setting the tray down, she came right up to 'Yumi' again and pressed her hand against her head, while Asuka looked at her nervously. "You're sweating like crazy, that's gonna make you feel gross after a while. You need a shower."

"R-Right, that'd be best…" 'Yumi' agreed with her, trying not to sound suspicious. "Though, my bathroom is still… thawing."

"You can use mine." Yozakura offered, taking her hand into hers in a manner that almost made Asuka jump. "That way, I can still keep an eye on you in case you try anything stupid again."

Asuka blushed again, but she took Yozakura's hand and nearly tripped over from the sheer force of which she was pulled up. "I-I forgot how strong you were…"

"When we trained together just yesterday?" Yozakura asked her with a suspicious look, and Asuka quickly backpedaled.

"W-Well, I've been so sick, my memory's a little cloudy…" 'Yumi' muttered awkwardly, averting her own gaze to avoid looking into Yozakura's eyes.

"Mhm…" Yozakura nodded, and it was right there that Asuka started to sweat. Was Yozakura suspicious of her? That was bad. Asuka had experience in class about shinobi who took the appearances of others to fool their loved ones.

Usually, that involved killing the target in question, which made Asuka really wonder about Yozakura's true intentions here. W-Was she being led to the gallows?! Quick, think of something!

"Y-Yozakura…"

"Upupup! Don't say another word." Yozakura told her calmly as she took 'Yumi' into her own bedroom and shut the sliding door. Asuka nearly jumped from the loud sound, her heart racing faster than usual from all of the uncertainty going on in her mind. "In fact, don't worry about anything right now. You just let me take care of everything, alright?"

"R-Right, of course…" 'Yumi' said, sweating bullets as Yozakura let go of her hand and walked across her own room to get to the bathroom. At the moment, Asuka didn't really know if Yozakura was actually planning a shower or if she was about to punch a hole through her.

What was she supposed to do about it? She had absolutely no idea how to use any of Yumi's skills, much less how to fight with a fan of all things. She could handle swords just fine, but could she really hold her own against Yozakura in a state like this?!

After a moment of standing there pondering her own death, Asuka heard the shower running, followed by Yozakura peeking her head out of the bathroom. "Come on, Yumi. The shower's not gonna wait for you."

"O-Okay…" 'Yumi' said in a nervous tone, walking to the bathroom as slowly as possible as if she were walking right towards her own execution. She was half-expecting to get blasted out of existence by Yozakura's gauntlets the moment she walked into the bathroom.

… Instead, as soon as she came in, she saw Yozakura taking her clothes off.

"Y-Yozakura?!" 'Yumi' shouted in a high-pitched tone, her face quickly turning beet red at the sight right in front of her. All Yozakura did was look at her with a raised eyebrow as she peeled off her shirt, exposing her black lacy bra.

"What's with that look, Yumi? We're getting in the shower." Yozakura told her, and 'Yumi' paled as Yozakura bent over and pulled down her tights. "We always take showers together. Why do you look so red?"

"A-Ah, yes, s-sorry, I'm just so sick…" 'Yumi' nervously tried to pass off, as her heart was currently going a mile a minute. Now, it wasn't like Asuka was completely unused to bathing with other girls. She took team baths with her teammates all of the time, and she went to hot springs with everyone fairly regularly. It wasn't uncommon for them to be naked around each other.

However, this situation was a little different. She was getting into the shower with a girl she didn't know all that well, and said girl just said it was perfectly normal for them to shower together. It meant Asuka had to play along to avoid making Yozakura more suspicious than she already was.

"Why are you just standing there? Do you want me to undress you?" Yozakura asked, as she unclasped her bra and set it aside. Asuka had to stop herself from staring as her jugs bounced and jiggled, before she bent down and removed her panties. "I mean, it'd be kinda weird, but if you're really that sick…"

"I-I can undress myself, thanks!" 'Yumi' said in a hurried voice, as she rushed to undress herself so Yozakura would stop questioning her. With a face that was about as red as Ashiya's hair, 'Yumi' quickly took off all of her clothes and set them down on the floor. She resisted the urge to cover herself, since this was supposed to be 'normal' for Yumi.

"Come on." Yozakura offered as she took her hand, and Asuka barely had time to mentally prepare herself before she was dragged into the shower with Yozakura. She was instantly hit by a stream of hot water hitting her skin, and Yozakura promptly shut the sliding door as Asuka got wet.

Asuka did her best to ignore the fact that she was in here with Yozakura now. The hot water definitely felt nice, and it only took a few seconds for her to get completely soaked, but she still couldn't get her mind off of the very naked girl right in front of her, who was also getting under the nice current of the shower.

… She really tried her best to keep her eyes off of Yozakura's body as she rinsed herself. She almost felt like Katsuragi when she saw the way her glistening wet boobs bounce, and she forced herself to look up when Yozakura turned to look at her.

"Here, Yumi. Since you're sick, I'll wash your body for you."

Asuka's mind blanked at that statement, so all she did as a result was stare when Yozakura grabbed a bottle of soap, poured it onto her hands and proceeded to rub it all over her chest. Asuka watched with a slack jaw as her breasts were coated with a thick layer of suds, and it was only when Yozakura started approaching her that Asuka's mind started to properly reboot.

"W-Wait, Yozakura—"

"Relax. I said I'd handle everything, remember?" Yozakura smiled at her, and Asuka found herself backing up against the wall of the shower. It didn't help much, as Yozakura easily closed the distance between them and neatly pressed their voluptuous bodies against each other.

Asuka felt a warm bolt of electricity shoot up her spine as she felt the girl's breast against her own, and she bit her lip. Yozakura didn't seem to really mind, if anything she looked outright happy with what was going on here. "Hey, Yumi? You wanna know something?"

"W-What…?" 'Yumi' asked in a shaky voice, and she almost lost it when Yozakura leaned into her ear. For a moment, she thought Yozakura was going to start kissing her right then and there.

"... I know you're not Yumi."

"... H-Huh?"

Asuka blanked out for a moment, while Yozakura leaned back and gave her a teasing smile.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice? You've been acting weird all day, you don't use any of her mannerisms, much less eat or talk anything like her, and you freak out over the smallest things. I've known Yumi since we were both runts, and you are definitely not her."

"... Oh."

Well, it seemed like Asuka wasn't as good of an actress as she thought she was.

… Wait, was she about to die here?

"Of course, I know you're not some kind of assassin, because you didn't try to kill me despite giving you a million openings." Yozakura told her, as if she could read her thoughts. "Also, no, we don't take showers together. I just wanted to mess with you."

Asuka blanched. "Y-You—!"

Yozakura chuckled. "So anyway, Miss Imposter, just who the hell are you? What happened to the real Yumi? Of course, if something actually did happen to her, I really will gut you."

Faced with such a question, in an awkward situation like this, the one thing Asuka could do as some type of response was just smile awkwardly.

"It's… complicated?"